What If My Donor Is Not The Same Blood Group
A donor with the same or compatible blood group is likely to be your best option for a transplant but if you do not have a donor with a compatible blood group, we can consider a blood group incompatible transplant. You will have to have suitably low levels of antibodies to your donors blood group and be strong enough to manage the extra treatment and immunosuppression involved. Your doctor or the live donor nurses can discuss this option with you.
How Old Is Too Old
At many institutions, donors over the age of 60, 65, or even 70 are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Between 1990 and 2010, 219 people over the age of 70 donated kidneys, and researchers say the number of donors in this age group is on the rise.
Surgeons will make their decisions for this older group based on a potential donor’s health and how well their kidneys work. If you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or are overweight, you probably won’t qualify to be a donor. Even if you don’t have health complications, the surgeon who would operate on you would make the final decision on whether to allow you to donate a kidney.
Transplant Vs Dialysis For Type 2 Diabetic Patients
Regarding patients with chronic kidney failure that are under renal replacement therapy, data collected from the USRDS from 1988 through 1996 indicated a 23% decrease in the mortality rates of the patients awaiting a deceased donor kidney transplant, which was also associated with a 30% decrease in the mortality rates of the patients submitted to kidney transplant . Nowadays, one-thrid of the kidney transplant patients in the United States of America and also in Brazil has diabetes before the transplant. Despite the transplant benefit, the probability of a cardiovascular event after the transplant is higher in diabetic patients in comparison to the general population .
In the United States of America, the kidney transplants in type 2 diabetic patients are usually performed with deceased donors, while only 20% are performed with living donors . It is also a reality in Brazil, inasmuch as the diabetic patients show lower probability of having living donors in the family, once there is a genetic predisposition for diabetes. According to Wolfe at al, the mortality after the kidney transplant, regardless of the age range , is lower in comparison to the dialysis therapy . Dialysis is a well-known risk factor for mortality because it contributes to the increased prevalence of cardiovascular events.
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Am I Healthy Enough To Donate A Kidney
Your doctor will do some tests to find out for sure. Theyâll check your blood and urine, and may also do an ultrasound or take X-rays of your kidneys. You may not be able to donate if you have medical issues like diabetes or high blood pressure.
If your doctor gives you the green light, theyâll schedule you for surgery. You can expect to take 4 to 6 weeks to recover. Be sure to line up someone to help you during that time.
You don’t usually have to change your routine or even your diet to get ready for surgery.
How Long Do Kidney Transplants Last
There are a number of factors which affect how long a transplanted kidney lasts.
These include whether or not the kidney came from a living donor, how well the kidney is matched in terms of blood group and tissue type, and the age and overall health of the person receiving the donation.
If you have a kidney transplant that fails, you can usually be put on the waiting list for another transplant. You may need dialysis in the meantime.
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Who Makes A Good Donor For Kidney Transplant
Kidney donors do not need to be related to the recipient, although they often are related. They can be friends, coworkers, members of the same religious group or other organization, or any other type of relationship. While many people are willing to be living donors, not everyone can become a living donor. Donors are carefully and thoughtfully evaluated in order to avoid unwanted medical or psychological outcomes.
While the individual circumstances of each potential donor are considered and testing must be done to determine compatibility, all potential donors must be:
- At least 18 years of age
- Genuinely willing to donate
- In good general health and reasonably physically fit
Certain medical conditions can make it likely a person will not be healthy enough to be a kidney donor but many other conditions may be acceptable . It is best to ask rather than assume someone cannot be a donor.
Individuals considered for living kidney donation are usually between 18 and 65 years of age. Gender and race are not factors in determining a successful match. Hypertensive donors over the age of 50 may be eligible under certain conditions. While the risk to the donor is minimal, there is always some degree of risk associated with any surgical procedure. The procedure is done laparoscopically which helps minimize discomfort and ease recovery after the procedure. Donors undergo an education process about the operation and its risks, and are able to confidentially decide not to donate at any time.
What If My Donor Does Not Live In The Uk
We can consider donors from outside the UK by asking them to post their blood to us for matching. Please ask the live donor nurses for details and a posting pack. If the donor is a suitable match to you, we will ask them to provide some basic medical details and have blood tests and an examination by a doctor in the country where they live. If these tests are all satisfactory, we can write to the home office for a visa to allow your donor to come to the UK to donate a kidney. You will have to look after your donor while they are in the UK and provide their travel expenses and accommodation.
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Diabetic Donor Kidneys Associated With Worse Outcomes
PHILADELPHIAKidneys from diabetic donors are associated with an increased risk of graft loss and death compared with kidneys from non-diabetic donors, especially in diabetic recipients, investigators reported at the 2015 American Transplant Congress.
Using United Network for Organ Sharing registry data, Deirdre Sawinski, MD, and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia compared outcomes between pairs of recipients receiving a kidney from the same donor. They stratified subjects by the diabetes status of both donor and recipient. Among pairs in which 1 recipient was diabetic and the mate recipient was non-diabetic, 1,539 received diabetic donor kidneys and 21,459 received non-diabetic donor kidneys.
Compared with diabetic recipients of diabetic donor kidneys, non-diabetic recipients of diabetic kidneys had a significant 19% decreased risk of graft loss and a 35% decreased risk of death. Additionally, results showed that diabetic recipients of a non-diabetic donor kidney had a 49% increased risk of graft loss and 1.9 times increased risk of death compared with non-diabetic recipients of non-diabetic donor kidneys.
The study found no difference in the risk of graft loss when diabetic recipients of non-diabetic donor kidneys were compared with non-diabetic recipients of diabetic donor kidneys.
Obesity And The Metabolic Syndrome
Since its inception, the metabolic syndrome has had varying definitions. The American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute reviewed these definitions in 2005 and promoted a revised version of the National Cholesterol Education Program/Adult Treatment Panel III . The metabolic syndrome has been shown to be a predictor of diabetes in the future . Along with obesity itself, the metabolic syndrome is associated with increased morbidity and mortality from CVD . The role of obesity in enhancing progression of prediabetes to diabetes is best illustrated by studies demonstrating a reduction in this risk with weight loss . Thus, donor BMI and the presence of the metabolic syndrome should be factored into the risk assessment of living-donor candidates with IFG .
Definition of the metabolic syndrome according to the National Cholesterol Education Program/Adult Treatment Panel III
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Frequently Asked Questions About Kidney Donation
Tens of thousands of people in the United States are waiting for new kidneys a much greater need than kidneys from deceased donors alone can meet. Living kidney donation helps make more kidneys available to more people in need.
Kidneys filter waste and excess fluids from the blood, eliminating them from the body in urine. Chronic kidney disease or failure is the gradual loss of kidney function, causing a dangerous amount of waste build-up in the body. Those who have kidney disease are often placed on the kidney transplant waiting list to become organ recipients.
A new kidney can extend a recipients life by at least 15 years. More than 101,000 Americans are currently on the transplant list, but only 17,000 receive a kidney annually. Sadly, 12 people die each day while waiting for a kidney. By donating a kidney, you can save a life. Read on and learn more in our FAQ about kidney donations.
Diabetes Diagnosis Risk Not Increased By Kidney Donation
Haugen A, et al. Poster #360. Presented at: American Transplant Congress May 30 – June 1, 2020. .
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The prevalence of diabetes was not significantly increased in kidney donors long after donation when compared to healthy patients, according to study findings presented at the American Transplant Congress.
With previous study findings reporting an increased risk of hypertension and end-stage renal disease subsequent to kidney donation, further evaluation was conducted on a kidney donor cohort to assess the prevalence of diabetes, Anders Haugen, MD, Oslo University Hospital, said during the presentation.
A total of 1,029 kidney donors and 16,084 healthy controls from the HUNT study eligible for donation from 1963 to 2008 were evaluated based on self-reported diabetes cases or on fasting glucose of more than 7 mmoL/L and non-fasting glucose of more than 11.1 mmoL/L or HbA1C of greater than 6.5% at a mean follow-up of 11 years in the donor cohort and 16 years in the healthy control cohort. To estimate the effected size, stratified logistic regression was performed on cross-sectional data.
Based on the diagnostic criteria, 4.8% of donors were diagnosed with diabetes at follow-up vs. 1.9% of control patients diagnosed at follow-up. The odds ratio for diabetes in the kidney donation cohort was 1.27.
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You Dont Have To Be Related To Someone To Donate A Kidney To Them
In fact, one in four living organ donors is not biologically related to the recipient . Spouses, in-laws, close friends, church members, and even members of the same community can all be living donors.
It’s true that family members have a higher chance of being a good match. But living donor transplants are more successful compared to kidneys from deceased donors because these kidneys come from living donors.
What Happens When Kidneys Stop Working
The kidneys remove waste products from our blood. They also control the levels of salt and fluid in our bodies. Sometimes an illness or a disease, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, can cause the kidneys to fail. When this happens, it is called end-stage kidney disease, because the kidneys are nearing the end of their ability to work correctly.
When the kidneys stop working, the patient must have some type of treatment to remove the waste products from the blood. One option is a kidney transplant. The kidney can come from a healthy living person or from someone who has recently died . Dialysis is another option. Dialysis uses a machine to remove waste products from the blood. For those who are eligible, transplant from a living donor is the best option.
How does living kidney donation work?
A person who donates a kidney to someone in need is called a living donor, and a person who needs a kidney is called a transplant candidate.
Any adult who is in good health can be assessed to become a living donor. Every potential donor must have a complete medical checkup to make sure they are healthy enough to donate a kidney to a person in need.
Types of living donation
Directed donation
This type of donation occurs when a potential donor knows a transplant candidate and is a match to that person. Directed donors can be biologically related to the transplant candidate or unrelated .
Non-directed anonymous donation
What are the advantages of living kidney donation?
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Should I Consider Having A Kidney Transplant In Another Country
We would not advise having a kidney transplant abroad. Although some patients have received a kidney transplant from abroad, the overall risk of complications and rejection is higher, and the life span of the kidney is often less. In our experience, the risk of infection after the transplant is higher with half the patients developing a resistant infection and a quarter developing hepatitis from their overseas donor.
Pros And Cons Of Organ Donation
When you’re considering becoming a living organ donor, think very carefully about these pros and cons:
Pros. Probably the greatest benefit of organ donation is knowing that you’re saving a life. That life might be your partner, child, parent, brother or sister, a close friend, or even a stranger.
Cons. Organ donation is major surgery. All surgery comes with risks such as bleeding, infection, blood clots, allergic reactions, or damage to nearby organs and tissues.
Although you will have anesthesia during the surgery as a living donor, you can have pain while you recover. Pain and discomfort will vary depending on the type of surgery. And you may have visible, lasting scars from surgery.
It will take some time for your body to recover from surgery. You might have to miss work until you’re fully healed.
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Are There Any Long
Large studies have been performed on people who have given one kidney to someone else. There does not appear to be any significant risk of serious problems from having donated a kidney. There is a slight increased risk of raised blood pressure and protein in the urine after donation. Therefore there does not seem to be any serious long-term problems from donating a kidney, but we do monitor all donors in the long term to make sure they remain healthy.
Which People Cannot Be Donors
All donors will have to go through a thorough screening process to make sure that they are fit enough to give a kidney. We would not take a kidney from anyone with diabetes, high blood pressure on more than one tablet or anyone with serious heart or kidney problems. A serious medical condition or previous cancer would usually rule a person out from being a donor.
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Isolated Kidney Transplant From A Deceased Donor For Type 1 Diabetic Patients
In Brazil, the organ allocation for kidney transplant from a deceased donor is determined by the HLA compatibility, resulting in a waiting time that may be over five or six years, which increases the secondary clinical complication events, either related to the diabetes or to the chronic kidney failure. The patient survival rate, although longer than in dialysis, is around 11.4 years .
On the other hand, it has recently been discussed if the comparison of the kidney survival can be done without a bias between simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant and deceased donor kidney alone, inasmuch as there are donor, recipient and transplant differences that may interfere with the outcomes . In this way, 5-year kidney graft survival was demonstrated to be similar between recipients of simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant and kidney alone from pancreas donors , whereas the kidney graft survival of the kidney alone from non-pancreas donors was significantly lower than the other two groups . When controlling for recipient and transplant differences, it was observed a reduction of 50% in the risk of kidney graft loss in the group of kidney alone from pancreas donors in comparison to simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant .
Is There A Downside To A Kidney From An Older Donor
When studies have compared older kidneys — those from people over age 50 or even over age 70 — to kidneys from younger donors, they’ve found some minor differences.
Kidneys from younger donors seem to work better over the long term. But people who get older kidneys are just as likely to be alive 5 years after a transplant as those that receive younger kidneys. Plus, the chances of complications from the procedure, and of organ rejection — when someone’s immune system attacks their new kidney — are the same with kidneys from all age groups.
The takeaway from these studies is that kidneys from older donors can work, but younger people in need of a kidney may want to consider being matched with younger donors.
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Kidney Donation For People With Pre
Can I be a kidney donor if I have pre-diabetes?
Maybe. Pre-diabetes means your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diabetes.
To qualify as a kidney donor, youll first need to make changes to try to lower your blood sugar. This may prevent your pre-diabetes from turning into diabetes.
Why is pre-diabetes a problem for kidney donation?
Pre-diabetes is a problem for kidney donors because:
- Pre-diabetes may turn into diabetes unless you can lower your blood sugar level
- Diabetes can cause kidney disease and is the most common reason for kidney failure in the United States
UNOS, the organization responsible for organ donation in the U.S., will not allow people with diabetes to donate.
How can doctors tell if Im healthy enough to donate a kidney?
To see if youre healthy enough to donate a kidney, youll have a donor evaluation. The evaluation is a series of tests doctors do to check your overall health and make sure there arent any problems that would keep you from donating.
To see if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes, doctors will:
- Ask about your family medical history, since diabetes can run in families
- Check your weight and age
- Test your blood for high levels of blood sugar and higher than normal hemoglobin A1c, which are signs of diabetes and pre-diabetes
What happens if tests show I have pre-diabetes?
If your blood sugar level is higher than 110mg/dl, it means you have pre-diabetes.
- Change your eating habits